Fall From Grace
by Lyza K
Summary: What if Percy had cut the spider silk? If it had been Piper dangling over the abyss, would Jason have fallen with her? Or would he let her fall and travel through Tartarus entirely alone, with nothing but her dagger and horn of plenty to keep her alive? Sort-of Jasper. T for violence and dark themes. Title change from 'Alone'
1. Prolouge: Letting Go

**So, full disclosure, Jason and Piper are actually my least favorite characters. However, while writing some one-shots, I discovered that I actually liked Piper when she wasn't thinking about Jason, and that I might just need to get to know them both a bit better.**

**(And that they might just need a little bit of a reality check in their relationship)**

**And therefore, I thought to myself, why not put them through some trauma to explore their characters?**

**Besides, it will help me learn how to write something that's not a one-shot. :)**

**So here we go...**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. As a matter of fact, this prologue is a parallel of part of Mark of Athena, so one or two of the lines are referenced from there.**

* * *

Jason was so glad that things seemed to be going their way, for once.

They had defeated two giants and had the means to stop the war between the Greeks and Romans, maybe even before it started.

He watched Percy and Annabeth speak quietly to each other, both of them obviously relieved that the other was all right. Percy uncapped Riptide and cut the spider silk around Annabeth's ankle.

Jason breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was going to be okay.

He turned to Piper. "So, we pulled through, huh?" She smiled.

That was when the floor started to collapse.

Perfect timing, thought Jason. Just perfect.

Piper looked at him with wide, kaleidoscope eyes as the ground under her feet cracked and crumbled.

She took a step towards him but couldn't quite make it. As she slipped through she grabbed frantically at the rocks in front of her, but they were weak and would no longer hold her.

Jason dived for her arm, which was disappearing at an alarming rate. He was just able to grab her sweaty hand before the last of the rocks beneath her fell into the abyss. She dangled in thin air.

The decomposition of the cavern partially stalled. Jason could distantly hear the sounds of the others loading the statue into the Argo II. Why weren't they helping them? Surely someone must have noticed that Piper was on the verge of falling into Tartarus.

Piper's fingers were slippery in his. He could barely hold on to her, even with both hands.

The floor under his own knees was beginning to collapse. They had just seconds before the whole place fell apart.

Piper smiled up at him, and her voice was full of love and trust. "Well? Pull me up. If you haven't noticed, the floor is nearly gone." She rolled her eyes.

Jason knew he didn't have enough time to pull her up and get to the ship in time. If he tried, they would both fall. He looked at her. Covered in blood and sweat, her hair a wreck, she looked more beautiful than he had ever seen her.

In that instant, Jason thought logically, like the Roman he was.

He looked into her eyes one last time, as the world around them dissolved.

"I'm sorry" he said.

And he let go of her hand.

* * *

**Ok, so that was a little short, but the first chapter will probably be longer then the prologue.**

**I haven't completely decided on the whole plot yet (I just got this idea today), so I may take a few days to outline the story first before posting again.**

**So, if I don't get to say it before then, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :D**


	2. Chapter 1: Falling

**So, I finally got my copy of MoA back from my friend. Yay! Now I can re-read the book and pay closer attention to the Piper bits!**

**This chapter may be a little bit Jason-centric, but the next chapter is going to be mostly Piper. :)**

**Thanks for all the reviews! Also, special thanks to The-One-And-Only-Piper-Mclean for pointing out a plot hole and to Hannah for providing a way to plug up said plot hole. I trule appreciate the help. :)**

**I own nothing.**

* * *

He had let go of her hand

Why?

Well, Piper understood why. He was a jerk who had chosen to save his own skin by dropping his girlfriend into Tartarus.

_It wasn't his fault the floor collapsed_, she chastised herself. Jason would never have let her fall if the situation hadn't been hopeless; he wasn't selfish like that. Anyone would have done the same thing. What had she expected him to do? Fall with her?

Piper felt a stirring of malice in her heart.

Well, maybe he should have fallen with her. Percy would have fallen if it had been Annabeth. Why hadn't Jason?

_He would just die with you_. _What's the point in that?_

The answer was nothing of course. There was no point in dying for love.

Or at least love that wasn't real.

Piper didn't care if there was no reason for Jason to fall with her.

She hated him for abandoning her to suffer this alone.

Piper fell into endless darkness.

* * *

Jason had expected many reactions from his confession, anger among them. He had fully expected them all to hate him.

However, he had not expected Percy to punch him in the face.

Jason whipped his head around and clutched at his nose. It didn't feel broken, but it was gushing blood.

Percy grabbed his shoulders and turned him roughly to face him, so they were nose-to-nose. His normally smiling face was full of rage. "How could you? You…you _Roman_!" he hissed.

Electricity crackled around the room. The remaining demigods of the prophecy looked nervous.

"Percy!" Annabeth took his arm and yanked him back. "There is _no way_ in Hades that I am going to let you two go at it in the middle of the mess hall. And don't use 'Roman' as an insult!"

Percy looked askance at Frank and Hazel, his expression softening a little. "You're right. Sorry guys. But," he glared at Jason "If you think I'm going to let this go…" He seemed to search for words before awkwardly saying: "…you're wrong." He turned sharply and stormed out of the mess hall.

Jason looked at his shoes, feeling like a student facing his teacher after failing a test. _I am a Praetor of Rome.__ I do not act like I have fallen from power._ He raised his head and gazed steely at Annabeth.

Annabeth examined Jason like he was a piece of slime under a microscope: with interest and perhaps a little bit of disgust. After a moment she spoke. "Okay, everybody out. I'll talk to him."

Hazel, Frank and Leo filed out through the door. Hazel looked betrayed, like she had when Jason had voiced his distrust of Nico. He hated to ruin her illusion of him as the 'Great Praetor Jason Grace' but, well...all illusions came to an end.

Frank wouldn't meet his gaze. Jason was discouraged. He had thought, out of all of them, Frank would understand that there had been nothing he could have done. He was a Roman, and a son of Mars to boot - surely he could understand that sometimes, sacrifice was necessary for the greater good.

Maybe not. To be honest, Jason didn't blame the guy.

He couldn't bear to look at Leo.

When the door swung closed behind them, Annabeth turned back to Jason. "You have blood all over your shirt." She stated.

Jason looked down. It was true; the blood from his nose had turned his shirt a ghastly shade of blackish-purple.

Annabeth made no move to hand him the box of tissues on the conference table next to her, even though his nose was still bleeding. Instead she spoke. "I never trusted you, you know."

"Excuse me?" So she thought he was in league with Gaea? His stomach ached with the injustice of it. "I let her go because I thought we'd have a better chance to defeat Gaea with six demigods instead of five. You need my lightning and powers of flight, not to mention my leadership skills."

She glared daggers at him. "So why didn't you use your oh-so-amazing 'powers of flight' to just fly her up?"

Jason glared back at her "You're a daughter of the wisdom goddess, you should know that Tartarus has a strong force of gravity. I barely got away myself. Besides, I had just fought, _and __defeated_, two ballerina giants and was _completely_ drained. I've never given you any reason before to doubt my loyalties. Why do you suddenly think I'm working for Gaea?"

Annabeth looked at him sideways. "I don't think you're a spy for Gaea. I just never trusted you as a person; to have my back in a fight. And you proved me right. You dropped Piper to save your sorry skin, and she was - is - your girlfriend. How can I be sure you won't switch sides when the going gets tough?"

He was so insulted he could barely speak. "What did you expect me to do? Die with her? Because maybe Percy won't sacrifice a single life for the greater good but…"

"She's not dead" said Nico Di'Angelo, who stepped out of the shadows in the corner behind Annabeth. He had been almost invisible before; no doubt some power of the children of Pluto.

Annabeth whipped around. "Nico! I thought I told you all to leave!"

"You did" he said calmly. "But I couldn't resist eavesdropping."

There was a very confused look on Annabeth's face. "She's not dead? How…that's not possible…"

Nico shrugged. "I don't know how, but she's alive…for now." He turned to Jason. "It actually might have been better if you did fall in with her. I mean…" Jason tried to protest but Nico held up a hand and continued. "I can't really speak since I haven't met her, but from what I've heard, Piper isn't exactly the most powerful demigod ever. Charmspeak…she won't last a day with that. Believe me. I've been there. You're much more experienced; if you had fallen too, you guys might have been able to survive long enough to get to the Doors of Death."

"She doesn't just have her charmspeak" Jason argued. "She has her cornucopia, and Katoptris. We could head for the Doors and meet her there if she survives…" He felt a spark of hope light in him. If Piper wasn't dead...

Annabeth broke in. "Oh no. You don't call the shots here anymore Mr. 'Sacrifice Piper for the Greater Good.' We have to decide whether or not to stop the Romans from attacking Camp Half-Blood before we tackle the Doors. I will talk with the others and _we_ will decide what to do next. _You_ are going to stay in your cabin and not cause trouble. Nico…" her expression softened slightly as she looked at him. "Go get some rest. You need it. And don't let me catch you eavesdropping again." She turned and marched out of the mess hall.

Jason felt so light-hearted that he turned to Nico and attempted to make a joke. "Did she just ground me? We should start calling her Coach Annabeth, huh?"

Nico didn't smile. Jason had never been very good at jokes.

* * *

The darkness was filling her lungs; her brain; her soul.

How long had she been falling? She couldn't remember.

She was falling fast, Tartarus itself was pulling at her as gravity did its job.

She would never survive the impact.

_I'm going to die._

It was all_ his _fault. She'd been so stupid to think he was a perfect Prince Charming. He was no different from the rest of them; in many things, he was less.

_I will never forgive him._

Then she heard the sickening sound of a muffled thump, a squish, and the crack of her bones snapping as her body hit the ground.

* * *

**Until next time!**

**Lyzzie out.**


	3. Chapter 2: Rock Bottom

**I'm really, really sorry this is so late! I meant to finish this chapter over Christmas break but then stuff happened and the internet was down for a while, then I went on vacation, we missed our connecting flight back home and got stuck in Houston for a day...**

**So yeah. I've been really busy. Sorry!**

**But I'm back now, this chapter is longer then the other two and doesn't have (much) of a cliffhanger.**

**I own nothing.**

* * *

When Piper opened her eyes, all she could see was blackness. Heart racing, she tried to calm herself by taking stock of the situation.

She had been dumped in the most literal sense.

She was in Tartarus.

She was alive.

Wait – how was she alive? She had felt her bones crack beneath her and had heard her body hit the…

Oh, the ground. Gaea must not want her to die just yet then.

She stretched her limbs. Nothing was broken, though every bone in her body ached. Being so hastily shattered and repaired couldn't be good for them.

Carefully, she felt the ground beneath and around her. It was some kind of hard rock, leaving no doubt in her mind that she should not have survived the fall - that it was in Gaea's best interests to keep her alive.

Well then. She wasn't going to play along with Gaea's plans.

She drew Katoptris and brought its point to her chest.

_She'll just bring you back to life again_.

Gaea would never let her die. Piper would be her pawn, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. In frustration, she threw her dagger away.

She regretted her mistake an instant later. She was now weaponless in Tartarus. Great.

_Stupid…_

Then, suddenly, there was light

Not much, just a soft bluish glow, though after the darkness of Tartaurs it felt almost blindingly bright. At first she couldn't tell where it was coming from. Then, as her sight adjusted, she saw it was coming from Katoptris, which was balanced precariously on a ledge above a deeper pit.

She carefully crawled over to it and picked it up like she would a bomb. Turning it over, she saw that a vision was running on the metal surface of the dagger.

It wasn't any special vision, just the _Argo II_ flying through the blue sky. Piper didn't understand why her dagger had started giving her visions when she wasn't holding it, and to be honest she didn't really care. She stuffed it in her bag, snuffing out its light.

Now what?

No matter what she did she'd be playing into Gaea's hands. All Piper actually wanted to do was sleep.

So she curled up on the hard rock of the bottom of the world and let the darkness envelop her.

* * *

For once in his life, Jason ignored orders. Instead of going to his room like Annabeth had said, he lingered at the side of the ship, looking down into the thick clouds below them. He usually regarded himself as a good, rule-abiding kind of guy, but in this case he didn't think Annabeth had the authority to ground him.

Well, maybe she did. He was pretty sure his rank on the _Argo_ _II_ was now lower than that of Buford.

Still, Jason was in a good mood. Piper was alive at least, and he was confident that she would be able to make it to the Doors of Death. Well, not exactly _confident_ – anything that could scare Nico Di' Angelo had to be formidable – but…hopeful. He felt a twinge of guilt that he had left her to battle through it all alone, but…

"Man, I can't believe you look so happy."

Jason turned around. Leo stood behind him: eyes cast downwards and silly grin missing for once.

"Leo, I…" he couldn't find the words to explain.

Leo abruptly looked up and Jason was taken aback by the hurt and rage in his expression. "Don't say anything. There's no excuse." He took a deep breath, as if to steady himself, and continued. "You and Piper are my best friends – or you _were_. We're supposed to stick together but then you go and let her…"

"She's not dead!" Jason couldn't take it any longer.

Leo's hair caught fire, but he didn't seem to notice. He yelled at Jason, stomping his foot against the deck: "I don't _care_ if she's not dead! I mean, I do but..." He stopped himself, doused his hair by patting it, and spoke again, this time more calmly. "That doesn't change the fact that you dropped her."

"How…"

"I don't want to hear it." Leo's voice was as cold and unyielding as a wall of ice – it sounded odd on someone who could summon fire at will. "You were her boyfriend. She trusted you with her life. She trusted you and you dropped her. Even if by some miracle she makes it, she's not going to be the same." His voice was getting louder again. "She's not going to be able to trust anyone like that ever again."

"Piper's not like other Aphrodite girls," Jason argued. "She's sensible – she wouldn't have expected me to fall with her, regardless of what Nico might say about two of us having a better chance then one. I admit, I made a mistake, but no one's perfect and Piper knows that!"

Leo stared at him like he was being an idiot. "Jason, have you _seen_ the way she looks – looked at you? I may not be the best with organic material, but even _I_ can tell that Piper would've trusted you to shoot an apple off her head like William Tell, even though you _suck_ at archery!"

Jason couldn't say anything. For a moment or so, the only sound between them was the whooshing of wind around the deck. Then: "I'm going to go and steer my ship." Leo turned on his heel and walked to the front of the Argo II.

Jason leaned on the railing of the ship, feeling like dirt. His best friend (okay, _ex_-best friend) now hated him, and he had dropped his girlfriend into Tartarus. If she survived, and that was a huge 'if', she would probably hate him and might not even be wholly sane.

And Leo…Jason was just shocked. He had never thought of Leo as someone who got very angry or emotional, just as someone who spent most of his time making jokes and trying to keep everyone around him happy. Now it seemed Leo no longer cared whether or not Jason was happy. The change was astonishing, like Leo had written him off as someone who didn't deserve friendship.

He was probably right, thought Jason. People trusted him and expected him to be the perfect Golden Boy, son of Jupiter, king of the gods. He never lived up to their expectations; always betrayed them some way. One of the things he loved about Piper was how she had seen him not as perfect, but as a real human being who crashed and burned and failed. Or at least, how he'd _thought_ she'd seen him.

Jason put his face in his hands, feeling that he'd hit rock bottom.

* * *

Piper was later ashamed that it wasn't any heroic or selfless thoughts that finally got her moving. It was her stomach.

_Grrrowl_.

"Oh, be quiet." Piper scowled, then sighed. "Great. I'm talking to my stomach. Not at all a sign of impending insanity."

_Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrowl!_

"There's no food so just shut…" she stopped, remembering her cornucopia. She prayed to every god she could think of as she reached for her belt, hoping it hadn't fallen out on the way down.

It should be right next to her dagger…there. Her hand closed on its curved shape.

Thank Zeus.

Piper brought out her horn of plenty, which wasn't particularly plentiful at the moment. She tried to think of happy thoughts to bring out food, but the darkness of Tartarus worked against her. It made the cornucopia sluggish and unresponsive.

Aside from that, she was having trouble thinking of any positive thoughts. On the beach, with Hercules, she had thought of Jason and their happy times together. She couldn't do that now; all her memories of Jason had been spoiled by his dropping her.

_Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rowl!_

"I'm working on it!" Piper half-yelled.

_Happy, happy, happy…_ she chanted to herself like a mantra. _Sunshine, butterflies, Ja-_.

She nearly threw the horn away from her in frustration, but refrained from doing so. That would have been stupid and childish.

Piper was done being stupid.

Instead, she continued trying to think of happy things. She tried remembering events from before she'd found out she was a demigod: before Jason. The time she had gotten an A on her math final and her dad had taken her out for ice-cream. The hike she and her grandfather had taken in the woods when she was seven. Playing with her neighbor's cat, Fluffy.

It seemed to be working, she felt less pressed upon by the weight of the darkness.

Then she ventured into the memories at Camp Half-Blood and aboard the _Argo II_ that did not contain Jason. There weren't all that many, Piper admitted to herself. Still, there were some: stealing Annabeth's breakfast; teasing Leo as he built the ship; Percy washing Octavian and his cronies into the water at Fort Sumter. Frank turning into a dragon. Hazel smiling.

Annabeth, Leo, Percy, Frank, Hazel. Her friends.

Finally, _finally_ she felt something come out of the cornucopia. She picked it up and bit hungrily into it.

Blueberry muffin. Delicious.

Small as it was, Piper felt much better after her meal. Thinking about her friends had also given her energy; while Jason was dead to her, the others were still on the quest.

Gaea still needed to be defeated. The Doors of Death had to be closed.

Piper stood up and lifted her dagger out of its scabbard. It began to glow again, showing the ship sailing through the air. She held it in front of her like a lantern, illuminating the flat stone of the floor in front of her.

She was going to fight her way through Tartarus; she would die a thousand times if she had to. And when she got to the Doors she would make Jason pay before closing them.

She was playing into Gaea's hands? All right then. Gaea would get way more then she'd bargained for.

Gaea would wish she'd never messed with Piper Mclean

* * *

**Just to clarify: no, Leo is not in love with Piper. He thinks of her as a sister and is upset.**

**I'll try and make sure the wait isn't so long this time, but I can't promise any specific dates or anything. My schoolwork hasn't fully started for this semester, so I don't know exactly how overloaded I'll be.**

**Also, this semester I'm helping some friends of mine build a submarine (Well! That came out of nowhere) for the International Submarine Races, so I have to dedicate some of my time to doing icky math problems.**

**And, I don't know yet _exactly_ how the next part of the story is going to go. I have the ending all planned out and some sketchy ideas for the middle, but I don't know what the next chapter will consist of.**

**Until next time,**

**Lyzzie out.**


End file.
